


Nico and the Grocery Run

by dawnheart, InkofLethe



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, Grocery Shopping, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4377986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawnheart/pseuds/dawnheart, https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkofLethe/pseuds/InkofLethe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy convinces Nico to take young campers on a grocery run. Things go wrong, hilarity ensues, and Will has to fix things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nico and the Grocery Run

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, inkoflethe

“Are we there yet?”

“It’s soooooo hot!”

“S’MORES!”

Nico was so done with this. He glanced in the rearview mirror at the five preteens crammed in the camp van. How exactly had Percy convinced him that this grocery run was not torture?

Nico veered into the parking space and jerked the key out of ignition.

“YAY!” Camilla and Marian cheered.

“PARTY!” Troy whooped.

“S’MORES!” Ulysses chanted.

The kids rushed out of the car, while Nico rubbed his temples. He locked the car door and hoped that no one would get run over by a car.

 

The drive home was almost worse than the drive up. Nico had been fighting a headache since the checkout line. Finally fed up with Gwenn and Troy’s squabbling, he turned to yell at them, when something slammed into the van, making it swerve violently on the country road.

“CYCLOPS!” Ulysses shrieked. 

Nico groaned as a second cyclops appeared in the windshield and heaved its club into the van’s hood. He felt the van slam to a stop then the air bags filled his vision.

“Everybody stay calm,” Nico called as the kids continued yelling.

The air bags receded, and Nico turned sorely to see an empty van. He scrambled outside to see the first cyclops lunging at Gwenn and Marian. The other children quickly ran to help their friends.

Campers were, of course, trained on best methods for fighting cyclops, but with a gut-wrenching feeling, Nico realized it wasn’t covered until their third year. Ulysses, the most senior of the five, had started just last year. 

Before Nico could get to the kids, the second cyclops roared from scarily close behind. 

The safest method was to tire the cyclops, then try for their upper legs, but that would take too long. A feign, then, would be best; southern cyclopes were rather stupid, anyway.

Nico ducked under the swing of the heavy club. Then, he took a diagonal charge at the cyclops, veering towards the right at the last moment, slashing its left leg on the way.

The cyclops howled.

Nico turned, dodging the cyclops’s messy, angry swipe. It looked high enough that it might have missed him even if he hadn’t crouched. Nico grinned briefly before charging again, taking another swing at the gray-skinned leg, and a third aimed at the cyclops’s opposite foot.

The cyclops was stumbling now, and Nico prepared to make a final attack. The stomach or chest were the best places to ensure a quick death, but both were a hard target. And the neck was too high for him to reach easily.

Lower back then, he decided, dodging a last aimless blow and running behind it. Before the cyclops had a chance to swing around and face him again, he stabbed his sword as deep as he could.

Just as the cyclops noisily dissolved into dust, Marian shrieked.

He turned around as the other cyclops’s club caught Troy’s shoulder and Camilla, standing a few feet from him, at her leg. Both crumpled to the ground. Marian and Gwenn shakily stepped in front of them. As valiant as the action was, they were both on the smaller side, and carried only knives which weren’t very effective when fighting eight feet tall monsters.

Ulysses, to Nico’s absolute horror, charged directly at the cyclops’ stomach. The cyclops swung his club and caught Ulysses right at the hip, him to the ground with a shattering scream. The cyclops raised his club again and Nico charged at the brute himself.

The first swing connected with the back of the cyclops’ leg, and the second, straight into its side.

The cyclops stumbled and swung around, Nico’s sword, still in the cyclops’ back, pulled him along, wrenching his shoulder sharply. Then, the cyclops fell, crumbling to yellow-brown dust.

Nico took a shaky breath, closed his eyes for a moment, then looked around to take stock of the situation. It was chaos.

“Everyone alright?” he asked in as calm a voice as he could muster.

“I think I’m dying,” Troy gasped, even though he was still on his feet.

“You’re alright,” Nico said, maybe a little more abruptly than necessary. “Camp is only a little way’s walk back. Everyone get up.”

“Ulysses isn’t waking up!” Marian was almost sobbing at this.

“He’ll be fine once we get we get back to camp. I’ll carry him.”

Nico crouched down and slung the kid across his back as gingerly as he could. Then he looked at Marian and Gwenn. “Help Camilla and Troy.”

He waits for them to tangle their arms together and hobble towards him like an eight legged beast. They trudged towards camp in silence.

 

“Nico!”

Percy had been waiting at the trunk of Thalia’s tree. He ran down the hill at the sight of them.

“You—what—it was supposed to just be a grocery run! What happened?”

“Cyclops attacked on the way back. Van’s sort of totaled, maybe half a mile away?”

Percy stared wordlessly.

“I need to take them to the infirmary,” Nico continued pointedly.

Percy nodded frantically, picking up the heavily limping Camilla and accompanying them to the infirmary.

When they entered, Will gaped.

“A grocery run. You went on a grocery run, and end up like this,” he said incredulously. “In a bed, all of you.”

Nico let one of Will’s siblings lead him to a bed. He sat down and let out a deep, somewhat relaxed breath for the first time since he left the camp for the grocery run. 

He watched Will and the other healers bustle around the cabin. When Kayla and Austin got to him and he silently let them patch him up and gave him a cup of nectar. 

He thanked them and they smiled.

“Remember, rest will make the healing process go faster,” Kayla said sternly.

“Got it. Thanks.”

They nodded and left.

Nico looked around the suddenly empty cabin. He hoped Will hadn’t left yet.

“So, cyclopes?” Will asked as he sat down next to him.

“Cyclopes,” Nico confirmed. “They didn’t know what to do and then Ulysses… Is he fine?”

“Yeah, he has bedrest for the rest of the week though. The others said you saved him.”

Nico shrugged.

“Come on, I’ll walk you to your cabin,” Will said finally. He slipped his arm around Nico’s shoulders, as they walked out of the medical cabin, through the warm evening, and up to the Hades Cabin.

“Thanks,” Nico whispered.

“You need to rest now.”

Nico smiled. “Love you.” He got on his tiptoes, and wrapped his arms around Will’s neck.

Will smiled, tilting his head. “Love you, too,” he breathed on Nico’s lips, then closed the distance between them.

**Author's Note:**

> So, we had a lot of trouble finishing this fic. I was ready to end it with this haiku:
> 
> Solangelo kissed  
> They walked out of the cabin  
> They went hand in hand
> 
> But luckily we thought of an ending. Hopefully it's actually better than the haiku.


End file.
